This game came at the end of one of the more turbulent weeks in Freo's history. The causes of the problems can be summarised as: Freo have played six games and lost all six. At the end of each game Damian Drum has been positive and affirmed his beliefe that the players are not too far off being very competitive. Given that there have been no huge defeats, most fans are inclined to believe him. Given that the players are good (because the coach says they are) but they are not winning games, clearly the coaching must be blamed, so it was suggested Drummie should be sacked.

Drum's response to calls for his sacking was to ask the board to "Sack me or back me". After a board meeting on Tuesday, they decided to do neither. The rumour mill suggested that they wanted to sack him, but they couldn't find anyone to take over the job. For whatever reason, the endorsement of the coach by the board was virtually non-existent.

Now, I haven't been a big fan of Drum's coaching, as a quick look around this website will confirm, and I wasn't convinced he should ever have been hired, but I think the handling of the situation over the past week has been pretty poor. Like Drum, I believe the board should have either sacked him, or endorsed him for the rest of the season. Doing neither was very soft.

Enough of my editorialising. This game was broadcast on delay into Melbourne, the first time Freo has had any TV coverage in Melbourne for the last month or so. The Dockers had Modra and Bell out with injury, along with some other lesser names such as Koops and (Super) Grover, but Dale! (Kickett) was back after his nine game suspension from last year's derby against West Coast. Freo also had the opportunity to take an almost all-South Australian forward line comprising Pavlich, Waterhouse and Schell to Adelaide to play against the Crows.

In the event, Adelaide started well, leaving the Dockers looking pretty ordinary in the first quarter. Adelaide had a new full-forward, Richardson, who the pro-Adelaide commentary team were very excited about. He certainly looked pretty good during the first quarter, although he let the Dockers off the hook with some pretty poor kicking for goals. As the game wore on, though, Leigh Brown gradually got on top of him.

Freo fought back in the second and third quarters. A highlight of this period was a classic piece of Freo play from Daniel Bandy, who managed to miss a goal from about 25 metres out. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one missing goals he should have scored, as Adelaide's inaccuracy made it easier for the Dockers to stay in touch. No doubt there were other highlights in here, I just don't remember them as well as the final quarter.

For mine, a highlight of the game occurred early in the final quarter when Adrian Fletcher ran into the umpire. There is a new rule this season, which has been causing a bit of a stink, that contact with the umpire means a free kick to the opposition. Sure enough, a free kick was paid to Darren Jarman, who lined up for goals. Neither the umpire getting flattened, nor the free kick was the highlight. The highlight was that it seemed to me that the Adelaide fans were actually booing the decision. Seems like no one likes to get a free kick for something like that. Jarman missed the shot, so maybe he thought it was a bit rough too. Fletcher was reported on video evidence and has been suspended for one week. A bit harsh, if you consider that it was only last year that Wayne Carey cleaned up an umpire at full tilt and then abused him when he got up for the way the umpie had stopped him getting to a contest. On the other hand, a good result compared to the four week suspension that Todd Curley got for bumping an umpire he was running past, although that has been reduced to two weeks.

Anothe highlight, also from the final quarter I believe was that Shane Parker scored a goal. It was almost like the good old days of Freo, with Shane charging through the centre, getting the ball passed about 10 metres backwards, then running forwards and shooting from the 50. That and the run that Dale! gave Freo out of defense made them look a lot better to my eye.

In fact, Freo looked like they were a real chance right up until there were only five minutes to go in the last quarter. At that point Justin Longmuir kneed Robran in the head, and Robran had to be stretchered off the field. Given the results in the past few weeks, the highlight of which was Freo conceding 13 goals in the last quarter and giving up a 15 point lead to lose by 8 goals to Brisbane, it was hardly surprising that the Crows were able to turn a 2 point lead at that point into a winning margin of 20 points, but it was a bit disappointing.

Final Score : Adelaide 14.19-103 defeated Fremantle 12.11-83.

© 2001 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

Return to The Dockers Page

Return to TimN's Home Page